Living the Tradition of the Catholic Faith passed down through Apostolic succession from Jesus Himself. Like the website, this is dedicated to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. However, this blog is also dedicated to my beloved parents: To my Father who always said I had a book in me and to my Mother who never let me forget it! ;)This blog is likely the closest I'll ever get to writing a book! ;)BattleBeads has been featured in How-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com's"Rosary Promoter of the Month". To read the July 2010 interview, please visit here.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The weakening of faith in the real presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist is one of the most significant aspects of the
current spiritual crisis. Jesus wants to strengthen our faith in His
Eucharistic presence. That is why from time to time in the history of
the Catholic Church He gives us signs–Eucharistic miracles that clearly
underscore the fact that He, the Risen Lord Himself in the mystery of
His Divinity and glorified humanity, is truly present in the Eucharist.
The most recent Eucharistic miracle recognized by the Church authorities
occurred in 1996 in the capital of Argentina–Buenos Aires.

A consecrated Host becomes flesh and blood
At seven o’clock in the evening on August 18, 1996, Fr. Alejandro Pezet
was saying Holy Mass at a Catholic church in the commercial center of
Buenos Aires. As he was finishing distributing Holy Communion, a woman
came up to tell him that she had found a discarded host on a
candleholder at the back of the church. On going to the spot indicated,
Fr. Alejandro saw the defiled Host. Since he was unable to consume it,
he placed it in a container of water and put it away in the tabernacle
of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.

On Monday, August 26,
upon opening the tabernacle, he saw to his amazement that the Host had
turned into a bloody substance. He informed Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio,
who gave instructions that the Host be professionally photographed. The
photos were taken on September 6. They clearly show that the Host, which
had become a fragment of bloodied flesh, had grown significantly in
size. For several years the Host remained in the tabernacle, the whole
affair being kept a strict secret. Since the Host suffered no visible
decomposition, Cardinal Bergoglio decided to have it scientifically
analyzed.

On October 5, 1999, in the presence of the Cardinal’s
representatives, Dr. Castanon took a sample of the bloody fragment and
sent it to New York for analysis. Since he did not wish to prejudice the
study, he purposely did not inform the team of scientists of its
provenance. One of these scientists was Dr. Frederic Zugiba, the
well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist. He determined that the
analyzed substance was real flesh and blood containing human DNA.
Zugiba testified that, “the analyzed material is a fragment of the heart
muscle found in the wall of the left ventricle close to the valves.

This muscle is responsible for the contraction of the heart. It should
be borne in mind that the left cardiac ventricle pumps blood to all
parts of the body. The heart muscle is in an inflammatory condition and
contains a large number of white blood cells. This indicates that the
heart was alive at the time the sample was taken. It is my contention
that the heart was alive, since white blood cells die outside a living
organism. They require a living organism to sustain them. Thus, their
presence indicates that the heart was alive when the sample was taken.
What is more, these white blood cells had penetrated the tissue, which
further indicates that the heart had been under severe stress, as if the
owner had been beaten severely about the chest.”

Two
Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and lawyer Ron Tesoriero,
witnessed these tests. Knowing where sample had come from, they were
dumbfounded by Dr. Zugiba’s testimony. Mike Willesee asked the scientist
how long the white blood cells would have remained alive if they had
come from a piece of human tissue, which had been kept in water. They
would have ceased to exist in a matter of minutes, Dr. Zugiba replied.
The journalist then told the doctor that the source of the sample had
first been kept in ordinary water for a month and then for another three
years in a container of distilled water; only then had the sample been
taken for analysis. Dr. Zugiba’s was at a loss to account for this fact.
There was no way of explaining it scientifically, he stated.

Only then
did Mike Willesee inform Dr. Zugiba that the analyzed sample came from a
consecrated Host (white, unleavened bread) that had mysteriously turned
into bloody human flesh. Amazed by this information, Dr. Zugiba
replied, “How and why a consecrated Host would change its character and
become living human flesh and blood will remain an inexplicable mystery
to science—a mystery totally beyond her competence.”

Only faith
in the extraordinary action of a God provides the reasonable
answer—faith in a God, who wants to make us aware that He is truly
present in the mystery of the Eucharist.

The Eucharistic
miracle in Buenos Aires is an extraordinary sign attested to by science.
Through it Jesus desires to arouse in us a lively faith in His real
presence in the Eucharist. He reminds us that His presence is real, and
not symbolic. Only with the eyes of faith do we see Him under appearance
of the consecrated bread and wine. We do not see Him with our bodily
eyes, since He is present in His glorified humanity. In the Eucharist
Jesus sees and loves us and desires to save us.

In
collaboration with Ron Tesoriero, Mike Willesee, one of Australia’s
best-known journalists (he converted to Catholicism after working on the
documents of another Eucharistic miracle) wrote a book entitled Reason
to Believe. In it they present documented facts of Eucharistic miracles
and other signs calling people to faith in Christ who abides and teaches
in the Catholic Church. They have also made a documentary film on the
Eucharist—based largely on the scientific discoveries associated with
the miraculous Host in Buenos Aires. Their aim was to give a clear
presentation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on the subject of the
Eucharist. They screened the film in numerous Australian cities. The
showing at Adelaide drew a crowd of two thousand viewers. During the
commentary and question period that followed a visibly moved man stood
up announcing that he was blind. Having learned that this was an
exceptional film, he had very much wanted to see it. Just before the
screening, he prayed fervently to Jesus for the grace to see the film.
At once his sight was restored to him, but only for the thirty-minute
duration of the film. Upon its conclusion, he again lost the ability to
see. He confirmed this by describing in minute detail certain scenes of
the film. It was an incredible event that moved those present to the
core of their being.

Through such wondrous signs God calls
souls to conversion. If Jesus causes the Host to become visible flesh
and blood, a muscle that is responsible for the contraction of a human
heart—a heart that suffers like that of someone who has been beaten
severely about the chest, if He does such things, it is in order to
arouse and quicken our faith in His real presence in the Eucharist. He
thus enables us to see that Holy Mass is a re-presentation (i.e. a
making present) of the entire drama of our salvation: Christ’s passion,
death, and resurrection. Jesus says to his disciples, “Unless you people
see signs and wonders, you will not believe” (Jn 4: 48). There is no
need to actively seek out wondrous signs. But if Jesus chooses to give
them to us, then it behooves us to accept them with meekness and seek to
understand what He desires to tell us by them. Thanks to these signs,
many people have discovered faith in God—the One God in the Holy
Trinity, who reveals His Son to us: Jesus Christ, who abides in the
sacraments and teaches us through Holy Scripture and the Magisterium of
the Catholic Church.

A mystery that surpasses our understanding
The Eucharist—the actual presence of the risen person of Jesus under
the appearances of bread and wine—is one of the most important and most
difficult truths revealed to us by Christ. Eucharistic miracles are
merely visible confirmations of what He tells us about Himself; namely,
that He really does give us His glorified body and blood as spiritual
food and drink.

Jesus established the Eucharist on the eve of
His passion, death, and resurrection. During the Last Supper, He “took
bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said,
‘Take and eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks,and
gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you, for this is my
blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the
forgiveness of sins’” (Mat 26: 26-28). When Jesus took and gave the
apostles the bread and wine, He said, “this is my body….this is my
blood” by which He clearly meant that the bread and wine which He gave
them to eat and drink really was His body and blood, and not some sort
of symbol.

Earlier, in the famous Eucharistic sermon recorded
by St. John the Evangelist, Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say
to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my
flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him” (Jn 6: 53-56). Shocked
by Jesus’ words, the Jews said, “How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?” (Jn 6: 52). Many of Jesus’ disciples were also scandalized. “This
saying is hard,” they objected, “who can accept it?” Knowing that the
truth of the Eucharist was a shock and a scandal to many of His
listeners, Jesus responded not by retracting His words, but by raising
the stakes: “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man
ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are
spirit and life”” (Jn 6: 62-63). Here Jesus goes to the heart of the
mystery by anticipating the glorification of His humanity through His
death, resurrection, and ascension. He will give His flesh and blood as
food and drink after the Ascension; that is, when His flesh and blood
have been glorified and divinized, for, unglorified, “flesh” is indeed
“of no avail.”

Not all Jesus’ listeners accepted His teaching
of the Eucharist. Thus He turned to them, saying, “‘But there are some
of you who do not believe.’ Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who
would not believe and the one who would betray him” (Jn 6: 65). Judas’
betrayal began with his rejection of Jesus’ teaching about His real
presence in the Eucharist. In confirmation of this fact, Jesus said,
“‘Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?’ He was
referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would
betray him, one of the Twelve” (Jn 6: 70-71).

The Eucharist is the
Risen Jesus Himself in His glorified, and thus invisible, humanity. This
is the essence of His teaching of the Eucharist (Jn 6: 62-63). By its
death and resurrection, the humanity of Jesus takes on a divine nature;
it assumes a new order of existence: “For in him dwells the whole
fullness of the deity, bodily” (Col 2: 9). In His glorified humanity,
the Risen Jesus, becoming omnipresent, gives of Himself in the gift of
the Eucharist. He shares with us His resurrected life and love that we
may even here on earth experience the reality of heaven and partake of
the life of the Holy Trinity.

Confronting the mystery of the
Eucharist, human reason feels its impotence and limitations. In his
encyclical devoted this sacrament, John Paul II writes: “‘The
consecration of the bread and wine effects the change of the whole
substance of the bead into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord,
and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood.
And the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called this
change transubstantiation.’ Truly the Eucharist is a mysterium fidei, a
mystery which surpasses our understanding and can only be received in
faith, as is often brought out in the catechesis of the Church Fathers
regarding this divine sacrament: ‘Do not see—Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
exhorts—in the bread and wine merely natural elements, because the Lord
has expressly said that they are his body and his blood: faith assures
you of this, though your senses suggest otherwise’” (Ecclesia de
Eucharistia, 15). The Eucharist is Christ’s supreme gift and
miracle, for in it He gives us Himself and engages us in His work of
salvation. He enables us to participate in His victory over death, sin,
and Satan, share in the divine nature, and partake of the life of the
Holy Trinity. In the Eucharist we receive “the medicine of immortality,
the antidote to death” (EE, 18). For this reason, Mother Church holds
that every deliberate and freely willed absence from Holy Mass on Sunday
is an irretrievable spiritual loss, a sign of loss of faith, and hence a
serious sin. Let us also remember that if “a Christian’s conscience is
burdened by serious sin, then the path of penance through the sacrament
of Reconciliation becomes necessary for full participation in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice” (EE, 37).

Hi and thanks for visiting the blog :) Hmmmm ... Interesting indeed! There's articles all over the place siting him as the CARDINAL that requested the testing at that time! More research required, obviously. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! A few of the sources (of which I was remiss in posting, I generally try to!) were creativeminorityreport.com, catholicforums.com, fisheaters.com, loamagazine.org, marian.org, catholicjournal.us, christianforum.com and several facebook and youtube links. Amazing really how so many places can have the same MISinformation! I wonder why? Now this brings more questions into play. Thank you so very much for posting! Blessings! :)

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BATTLEBEADS UPDATES, SALES & INFO!A request was made that I make a video tutorial on how to make a Macramé Rosary. 1st effort by myself and my brother, the camera man :)*** The tutorial shows and mentions #11 seed beads ... ERROR! LOL .. should be #6 seed beads! ***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Apostle, St. John tells us exactly how to recognize the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood. He says "as for them, they are of the world - and the world listens to them because they speak the language of the world. But we are children of God and those who know God: LISTEN TO US. Those who are not of God REFUSE TO LISTEN TO US. That is how we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood." ~1 John 4:6 [The "us" to whom St. John refers are the Apostles, and their successors the Bishops.]Abortion Alternative - The Adoption Movement"THE BORN SUPREMACY: OUR UNBORN IDENTITY"LUISA PICCARRETA ~ DIVINE WILLIt WILL change your life!Prayer to avoid the Sin of PRIDE:“Oh My Jesus help me to avoid the sin of pride when I speak in Your Name. Forgive me if I ever belittle anyone in Your holy Name. Help me to listen Jesus when Your Voice is spoken and fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I can discern the truth of Your Word when You call out to mankind. Amen.”A prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge Your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that You, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that You can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me Your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before You in "wedding garments." Amen.“My children, let your speech be chosen with great care—it must be a light in the world. Know and believe that all you say has repercussions in time and eternity. Therefore, choose your words with wisdom and prudence, choosing to remain silent rather than fill the air with useless chatter or worse, gossip or virulent speech. Let your speech be a perfect mirror of your peaceful heart, a heart firmly grounded in the love of God and in complete trust in His goodness. Silence is often the more virtuous path. Bridle your tongue and you will be working for peace in the world.”SWANSONS ONLINE! THE BEST QUALITY AND PRICES FOR ALL YOUR VITAMIN, SUPPLEMENT AND HERBAL NEEDS!!!! Been with them over 10yrs and LOVIN' IT! :)ZULILY ~ GREAT PRICES & GREAT STUFF!

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It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
—Editorial, Pravda, April 27th, 2009;
http://english.pravda.ru/

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Just a Note:

Through the grace of God and many prayers, I survived a double surgery (with cancer) in the fall of 2008. Since then has becoming increasingly important to me to enhance my prayer life. I have taken on the task of praying for strangers and those with little hope and much adversity. To that end, I've also begun (July '09), to make rosaries and related items to put prayer into the hands of as many as I can that will PRAY for others.

The world is at the precipice ... we need to TAKE ACTION ... NOW. Time for fence sitting is quickly coming to an end. We all need to do what ever we can in the way of PRAYER & PENANCE to beg God's Grace upon humanity that we may shake away this sinfulness and pride to get back on the road that leads to heaven and our Glorious Triune God!

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After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if satan's temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he'll have an incentive to leave you alone.~St. Ignatius of Loyola